Losing gold over trading surplus resources

[tranx]

I noticed in several games of civ4 that when I would trade some resource which I have surplus of for another resource, I would sometimes lose money, like 2 or 3 gold per turn. What's the reason behind that?

I understand that when I trade surplus resource I don't lose the bonus this resource give, because the bonus given by resources is not cumulative (2 gold don't give you +2 happiness). But why is that when I trade one of those gold for, said, bananas, I happen to lose some gold?

Maybe related to that: when your workboat becomes fishing boats, your gold per turn often raises by 2 or 3. I always assumed it was due to the city working the resource tile now improved. Could it be that I was wrong?

 

[Ataxerxes]

I noticed in several games of civ4 that when I would trade some resource which I have surplus of for another resource, I would sometimes lose money, like 2 or 3 gold per turn. What's the reason behind that?

I understand that when I trade surplus resource I don't lose the bonus this resource give, because the bonus given by resources is not cumulative (2 gold don't give you +2 happiness). But why is that when I trade one of those gold for, said, bananas, I happen to lose some gold?

Maybe related to that: when your workboat becomes fishing boats, your gold per turn often raises by 2 or 3. I always assumed it was due to the city working the resource tile now improved. Could it be that I was wrong?

I don't know why you would be losing gold. Sometimes if it's a trade of a strategic resource for a luxury resource the AI will demand GPT. I've never seen that. Could you post a screenshot of the deal. Trading gold for bananas shouldn't cost you GPT if the trade when it was made didn't show GPT.

As a passing note, the AI considers Ivory to be a strategic resource, so if you offer to trade Gold for Ivory, the AI will demand GPT as well.

On the last item, I believe you are right. A fishing boat would make the water tile very attractive for the city to work instead of, say, a forest tile and the City Governor would automatically make the change.

 

[goldys_lackey]

Maybe the +1 health causes a previously stagnant city to grow another pop at end-turn. More pop > more expense.

 

[rah]

Or allowed a city not to worry about the next growth and switched a cottage to a food square.
This would have shown the change right away, and not have to wait for the next turn to show.

 

[oldskald]

I've had this happen to me. I always assumed that the game randomly chose the source of the particular surplus that I was trading, and sometimes this would be a resource that was already being worked, causing a loss to the city and therefore central treasury.

 

[plasmacannon]

A screenshot of the tiles around this city would be helpful.

 

[Seraiel]

You don't lose anything if the Ressource is surplus and you don't give GPT to the AI.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You don't lose anything if the Ressource is surplus and you don't give GPT to the AI.

You definitely can if you have the governor on, because it will shift which tiles are being worked especially in cities that were previously at a or cap.

 

[Seraiel]

Why should the Governor i. e. change the tiles if I have 2 Sugars and I trade 1 for GPT?

In the OP he said he was trading surplus Ressources for GPT.

[EDIT]

Who plays with the Govenor deserves to lose Gold btw imo, but I still cannot think how trading a surplus Ressource for GPT should make the Governor switch tiles.

 

[mintegar]

In the OP he said he was trading surplus Ressources for GPT.

No, quote: "when I would trade some resource which I have surplus of for another resource"

So it could be the +1 extra health or happy gained from the trade that makes the governor switch.

 

[s.bernbaum]

It is also possible that it was a coincidence. If a city grew on the same turn that the trade occurred, the GPT income would drop due to the increased pop. It would be unrelated to the trade.

 

[tranx]

Thanks everyone for the input.

I don't have a screenshot of the trade or of the city working the resource tile, it's just something that I noticed happened from time to time and I wondered why it was so.

What was said about governors is definitely interesting, it could well be the reason why a resource trade makes me lose (or sometimes gain) gold. I'll be sure to switch them off on my next game and see how it changes these gains/losses twitches.

Since I'm here, I have another question: is there an option to forbid the player to see exactly how many troops are hiding in enemy cities? Right now it's a bit too easy, moving your cursor on the city tile tells you exactly how many troops of what type and with what promotions are defending said city. I want a little more uncertainty. As I view it, you would just be able to know that there are 1 to 7 or 7+ units in said city, then would have to use espionage (passive or active) to determine exactly what kind of troops with what promotions there really are. I don't think it's already how things are, if it is then the cost in EP is really really low.

 

[mintegar]

No there is no option to have a distinction between seeing # of troops, and what troops exactly. If you have enough EP to gain the "city visibility" benefit you see the exact units.

Maybe it would be possible to make a mod for that, but that won't be easy as you'd have to do some coding i guess.

You could raise the Mission cost for Visibility in CIV4EspionageMissionInfo.xml. Keep in mind that it is not recommended to edit the file directly, instead either make a Mod, or copy the file to CustomAssets. Please have a look in Modding forum, i'm sure there is a thread there which explains what exactly you have to do.

Or just play higher difficulty? On the higher levels i normaly only gain the Visibility-Bonus in late-game.

 

[reddishrecue]

I noticed in several games of civ4 that when I would trade some resource which I have surplus of for another resource, I would sometimes lose money, like 2 or 3 gold per turn. What's the reason behind that?

I understand that when I trade surplus resource I don't lose the bonus this resource give, because the bonus given by resources is not cumulative (2 gold don't give you +2 happiness). But why is that when I trade one of those gold for, said, bananas, I happen to lose some gold?

Maybe related to that: when your workboat becomes fishing boats, your gold per turn often raises by 2 or 3. I always assumed it was due to the city working the resource tile now improved. Could it be that I was wrong?

You probably didn't see when you were making the trade with the civilization is that sometimes when they're trading with you they have a "+2 Gold per turn" which can cause a difference.